Tuesday, February 19, 2013

1975 Topps 1973 Rookies of the Year

1973 marked the last year that Topps release cards in multiple series. Most of the Rookie of the Year candidates were immortalized on cardboard that year. That is no small task as there were 14 different players receiving ROY votes. (15 if you include Richie Zisk who is included on the Baseball-Reference.com NL ROY list despite apparently receiving no votes?) Of the 14 (or 15) only 4 didn't have a card in 1973. All 11 appeared on cards in the 5th and final series.

In 1974 the Topps baseball wax packs declared "All 660 Cards in One Series". That year only 3 of the 8 ROY candidates would have cards. That trend would continue with only 21 of 46 ROY candidates having cards in their rookie season from 1974-1979. But in 1980 there were 16 different players receiving ROY votes and not a single one of them had a 1980 Topps card.

In 1981 Topps would add a "Traded Series" but it wouldn't be until the 1983 that Topps would fully use the potential of the Traded set to include rookie stars. 10 of the 13 ROY candidates had cards in the 1983 Traded set. 1983 coincidentally (or not) would also be the first year since 1960 that Topps would not have multi-player rookie cards.